| 18 May 2009 |
GEXSI’s Round-it Up voted best fund-raising model for charities in the EU At the conference “Europe of engaged citizens – Resources and Sustainability” from May 4-5 2009 in Brno, 30% of the participants voted for GEXSI’s Round-it up initiative as the best fundraising model for charities. The aim of the conference was to introduce and discuss the most successful procedures for sustainability of the non-profit sector among the EU member states. The Round-it up initiative implemented by GEXSI in the UK was considered to be the best tool for financing NGO activities compared to Charity lottery or SMS donations. |
| 15 March 2009 |
GEXSI BoP Fund Investment in Madagascar – Donation by Veolia Suisse GEXSI’s philanthropic Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) investment fund provided a 15,000 € support for the development of second generation feedstocks for biofuel production that do not compete with food production. The project located in the semi-arid North-Western part of Madagascar works with Jatropha, a drought-resistant tree that yields a non-edible oil suited to fuel diesel engines. The trees are planted at the border of the National Park Ankarafantsika, thereby protecting this unique biosphere reserve from bush fires and illegal logging. The support has been made possible through a donation from Veolia Suisse, a leading environment company. This initial support is the first activity within a longer-term partnership with Veolia. |
| 15 May February 2009 |
Good Growth Institute supports GEXSI GEXSI received a donation from the GoodGrowth Institute earmarked for the further development of its Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Fund. The BoP Fund’s aim is to assist social purpose organisations to move “from aid to market”, from being charity dependent projects to viable businesses. The BoP Fund so far has invested in a project in Bolivia, with a second investment being prepared in Madagascar. |
| 12 December 2008 |
Launch of Social Stock Exchange Association – Creation of a market place for social ventures Social ventures are always faced with the challenge of acquiring sufficient investments. Many of these concepts do not match into the conventional mechanisms of the financial market: expected returns are insufficient and at the same time the risk for investors is high. GEXSI therefore works on creating a marketplace for social ventures and a Social Stock Exchange is a promising way to achieve this aim. The idea is to create Social Stock Exchange, which acts as a market maker with a defined offering for different types of investors and different types of social organisations. One of these types are hybrid investments in social ventures which yield a blended value of social impact and financial return. Although there a several organisations supporting social ventures a platform for financing such projects is missing until now. In cooperation with other institutes GEXSI initiated the Social Stock Exchange Association working on transferring the idea of a Social Stock Exchange into reality. |
| 2 November 2008 |
Set up of Jatropha Sustainable Biofuels Alliance Together with Green Power Holding AG and Business Campainging Switzerland GEXSI founded the Jatropha Sustainable Biofuels Alliance. The Alliance will promote the production of biofuels that contribute to poverty alleviation, carbon-offset and global energy security. Due to its expertise on Jatropha GEXSI was entrusted to take the lead in transferring this vision into reality. Further information is provided at the website www.jatropha-alliance.org which has been sponsored by GEXSI. Jatropha is seen by GEXSI as a possible solution to today’s critical discussion about biofuels in general. Jatropha is an oil-bearing tree that can be used for the rehabilitation of wastelands in the semi-arid tropics and allows to include smallholder farmers in low-income regions. |
| October 2008 |
Our new book Financing Future: Maritta Koch-Weser and Tatiana van Lier, Published by ACLEU and GEXSI, October 2008. For order contact Laura Santacreu at the Association of Charity Lotteries in the European Union (ACLEU): laura@acleu.eu |
| October 2008 |
Maritta Koch-Weser, Wim Jacobs, Tatiana van Lier and Laura Santacreu ran a workshop on Innovative Finance at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, October 8, 2008. |
| October 2008 |
Vision Summit 2002: GEXSI is a partner organization of the Berlin 2002 Vision Summit, which is being organized by the Genisis Institute: www.genisis.org |
| October 2008 |
Social Investment Exchange: GEXSI cooperates with partners in Latin America, Asia,and Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany on methodologies and marketing platforms for Social Investment. |
| 15 May 2008 |
GEXSI is a founding member of the working group on Jatropha of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. The Roundtable builds on the experience with other multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and seeks to develop and promote sustainability guidelines for energy crops. GEXSI presented the results of the first Global Jatropha Market Study that gives an overview of the status of over 240 jatropha projects worldwide. For more information on the Roundtable see RSB as well as www.jatropha-platform.org. |
| 6 May 2008 |
GEXSI closed the first investment through their Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Fund that had recently been launched. Beneficiary of the $ 10,000-investment is the Pyrethrum Project in BolIvia. |
